News

From left: Sesha Joi Moon, Chuck Richardson, Shawn Utsey, Stephanie Rizzi and Christopher Brooks during the recent “Restoration and DEI: Where are We Now?” panel discussion at VCU. (Kevin Morley, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)

Panelists assess historical shadows and modern perspectives on DEI and restorative justice

Oct. 22, 2024

The discussion, offered by VCU’s Project Gabriel and Common Book program, highlights personal connections and broad-based insights.

Shawn O. Utsey appointed chair of AFAM

July 1, 2024

Utsey has served as acting chair of the department since September.

Throughout its more than 100-year history, the ballroom scene has undergone significant changes, though the fundamental aspects of community, acceptance and empowerment remain the same. (Shikeishu, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons)

Beyond the fab and the fun, the ballroom scene has deep meaning with deep roots

June 17, 2024

VCU scholar Julian Kevon Kamilah Glover shares insight, including from her personal journey, into an American cultural force that has crossed the globe.

A planned Richmond Freedom School being developed by two VCU professors will share community-based conversations about Richmond-specific topics ranging from politics, history and civics to ecology, arts and science. (File photo)

Mellon Foundation grants will help VCU professors launch Richmond Freedom School

May 2, 2024

Elizabeth Canfield, Ph.D., with the Department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, and Mignonne Guy, Ph.D., with the Department of African American Studies, are developing a new program for the Richmond community.

At the 2024 PACME ceremony: (from left to right) Faye Z. Belgrave, Ph.D., vice president and chief diversity officer; Austin Ezzard, a social work student; Kim Case, Ph.D., professor of psychology and affiliate professor of gender, sexuality and women’s studies; KáLyn "Kay" Coghill, a media, art and text student; Christina Davis, advisor and instructor in the Interdisciplinary Studies Program; Shawn Utsey, Ph.D., professor of psychology and acting chair of the Department of African American Studies; Brooke Berry, interim associate vice president for strategic initiatives, inclusion & belonging; and VCU President Michael Rao, Ph.D. (Thomas Kojcsich, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)

‘We are diversity’: Five VCU community members honored at the 2024 PACME ceremony

April 18, 2024

Shawn Utsey, recipient of the Riese-Melton Award, notes ‘how much work we still have to do. We cannot afford to become complacent in the face of injustice.’

Ana Edwards, an assistant professor of African American studies at VCU, has been interviewing members of the Family Representative Council, including Joe Jones and others who have been connected with the work going back to 1994. (Contributed photo)

VCU students, faculty document oral history of the East Marshall Street Well Project

April 2, 2024

The Health Humanities Lab, a research lab at VCU’s Humanities Research Center, is conducting the project in collaboration with the Family Representative Council.

“Remembering Paule: A Photo Memoir of Her Richmond Years” chronicles the friendship of Daryl Cumber Dance and Paule Marshall, the first tenured Black professors in the VCU Department of English. The photo on the cover was taken in March 1995 at Howard University when Dance and Marshall attended Toni Morrison’s gala establishing The Sterling A. Brown Chair.

In new book, Daryl Cumber Dance chronicles her ties to revered author and VCU colleague Paule Marshall

March 15, 2024

Photo memoir by retired English professor documents a friendship and legacy that the ‘truth warriors’ nurtured for decades.

Jacob Helt and Kimberley Neal-Helt caught each other’s eye at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart on VCU’s Monroe Park Campus. (Tom Kojcsich, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)

Ram romances: Their first (and second) impressions were way off, but Kimberley Neal-Helt and Jacob Helt found their way to happy ‘havoc’

Feb. 13, 2024

VCU alums from 2015 and 2016 overcame mixed messages – and a rocky first date – and eventually tied the knot where they met.

Tarazha Jenkins, a triple major at VCU, has interned with Sen. Tim Kaine, Rep. Bobby Scott and the MSNBC show “All In With Chris Hayes.” (Tom Kojcsich, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)

Class of 2023: Tarazha Jenkins embraces the power of three majors

Dec. 13, 2023

Jenkins nurtures a passion for politics and communications that already has given her Capitol Hill and media experience.

Mignonne Guy, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of African American Studies, is the recipient of the 2024 Pebbles Fagan Award. (Contributed photo)

VCU’s Mignonne C. Guy receives award for outstanding contributions through health-equity research

Nov. 17, 2023

Society for Research on Nicotine & Tobacco honors her commitment to public health.